Kim Lenox – Blog

Hey there readers! I googled myself last night, something I haven’t done in a very, very long time, and came across some great reviews! This one for NIGHT FALLS DARKLY from the ladies at Realms On Our Bookshelves.

Review of Night Falls Darkly

Review by Pearl:

Immortal Shadow Guard Archer Black is summoned to London to deal with a persistent criminal who’s murdering and slashing up prostitutes. Back in London he finds the woman he saved years before while Reclaiming another depraved soul. He discovers the emotional pull she had on him is still there.

Elena Whitney lives in her guardian’s home after an accident that left her with severe memory loss. Nevertheless she has ambitions in life and the freedom to follow them. When her unknown guardian, Lord Black, finally makes an appearance, her life is turned upside down, not in the least because of the budding feelings of passion she develops for him.

The main characters are Archer, Lord Black, and Elena.
Elena is a strong young woman who hasn’t let tragedy ruin her life and who speaks exactly what’s on her mind. She is intelligent, outspoken, strong-willed, sensitive, benevolent, impulsive and rebellious. She has dreams and ambitions and is determined to make them real. She wants to be a doctor like her father was and does everything she can to realize this dream. She volunteers at the charity ward at the hospital and has applied for the School of Medicine for Women. She has no time for romantic feelings towards any one until her guardian shows up in London and for the first time in her life she’s aware of him in a way she has never been of any man.

Archer Black is a man of few words. He is elusive, mysterious and compassionate. Unknown to Archer and thanks to his secretary Leeson, Elena is his ward and when he comes back to London she is the last person he expects to find in his home. He is an immortal hunter and a killer of souls who cannot be saved. His job is to take them and send them somewhere where they can’t harm mortals or penetrate the Inner Realm of the immortal world of the Amaranthine. Feelings are unfamiliar to him and he is unable to feel or attach until he met Elena. He doesn’t need the complication of living close to the only woman who stirs his cold heart.

I saw both Elena and Archer through their eyes, how they saw each other. Lenox has a way of changing points of view effortlessly; giving me rounded characters viewed from all angles. Elena and Archer are irresistibly drawn to each other from the very beginning. As a reader you follow them in their struggles with each other and their own feelings, all against the background of a dangerous murderer on the loose.

The secondary characters are many. There is Jack the Ripper, whose presence is absolutely tangible in the story even if he doesn’t appear physically until the very end. There are Archer’s secretary Leeson and fellow Guards, the twins Selena and Mark. There is quite some story between Archer and the twins and in my opinion just part of it is revealed in this book. Selene has a very funny quirk that involves books and I’m sure that there’s much more to her than met the eye in this story.

There are also the people surrounding Elena: maid Mary Alice, companion Mrs. Hazelgreaves, the staff and patients in the hospital. All these secondary characters had their role in the plot and the romance but they never took the focus from Elena and Archer. As true supporting characters they provided the background for the main couple to star against but the book wouldn’t be the same without them.

There are so many things I liked about this book that I don’t know where to start. I liked the world, the characters, the romance, and the plot. Everything was mixed together in a breathtaking debut novel with all the elements worked out in a superb way. Slowly Kim Lenox provides information on the Amaranthine Shadow Guards and their world. She builds it up in a great way, mixing explanations and descriptions smoothly with the story. This way she keeps the Amaranthine mysterious until the very end but you don’t realize this until the whole picture is formed. Her world building and descriptions of characters and events are meticulous and extensive without interfering with the pace and without making the book dull or repetitive.

Lenox’ eye for historical details is amazing. I had no trouble picturing myself in Victorian London at the end of the 19th century. Not in the least because of the way she mixed the fictional characters, both main and secondary, with real historical figures like Jack the Ripper, Queen Victoria and Bram Stoker. She embedded them perfectly in the story. The new and refreshing approach of taking ancient mythology to provide not only Archer’s background but also Jack the Ripper’s actions and motives struck a cord with me since there are so many books on both mythology and Jack the Ripper and Lenox managed to give it an original twist.

Her writing is captivating and addictive. With the use of just looks, touches and kisses and only one real love scene she builds up the attraction between Elena and Archer in a way that’s fantastic. It’s like watching two magnets being drawn together slowly but surely. She proved to me, who likes her romances steamy, that romance can be just as tantalizing without many physical love scenes. Reading this gradual journey to love at the perfect pace was utterly enjoyable. The balance between plot and romance was excellent. Both were interlaced throughout the book and neither took a more prominent role over the other. I find it hard to name the plot. Yes, there are murders, yes there’s a murderer but the plot is so much more elaborate than just a suspense plot to catch a killer. It was set up magnificently. The gradual disclosure of information kept me at the edge of my seat, waiting for the big confrontation to conclude the plot. With her unexpected twists and turns in the plot she lead me all over the place while reading and she gave the book and the characters that welcome veil of unpredictability.

The book has a great ending that entails closure for Elena and Archer but it’s only the beginning for Mark Alexander who is the hero of the next book. For me it’s clear, especially at the end that this first installment of the Shadow Guard series is just an introduction and there’s much more to come.

With her first book Kim Lenox gave me a enthralling and original romance spiked with suspense and paranormal elements and in me she has found a loyal reader who’s hooked and waiting for the next treat.

Quotes:
He felt all tangled up with her, something his mind rejected, but his soul craved.

While “hauteur” was no accurate description -for he was not arrogant in his mannerisms or speech- he emanated inaccessibility, as if every emotion and impulse were kept behind an impenetrable wall. Elena couldn’t help but wonder what he would be like if that wall were destroyed.

Review by Ashleagh:

Elena finds herself in the claws of a killer and her savior appears on the rooftop to help her out. In her getting saved from said kiler she falls of the rooftop making her memory blank out. After she spend her time recovering she tries to built up a life for herself, she knows there is a guardian Lord Black but he’s not in London.

With a killer on the loose in the streets of London she has to be careful on the Eastside of town but she eagerly wants to start a study which is on that side of town. One day she comes home and finally gets the chance to meet her guardian, things aren’t what they seem, but the attraction between them is evident and not avoidable-no matter how hard they try.

I had to get into the writing in the beginning as when some speak as it’s written is exactly like the lower class speech. I had to get used to that a lot, but once I got settle into that I was hooked onto the story!

The twist between the shadow guards, the Transcended in combination with the Jack the Ripper history gives this story something rather unique and thrilling to read. Especially as it’s set in a Victorian Historical timeperiod which – by the way – was captured marvelously in my opinion. Throughout most of the book the attraction between the hero and heroine lingers and gives a more “Regency” like vibe to it all, but it’s out there and that satisfied my need for a bit of romance in each story I read.

Elena is a woman who has no memory of who she was from before her previous encounter with a ‘dark encounter’ and is trying very hard to remember her past, her loved one’s – all the while trying to make herself the purposefull life she craves. She is smart, sweet, loveable and passionate as well as very brave.

Lord Archer Black is this thousands year old Shadow Guard who has seen it all. He has this intensity around him making you want to peal back the layers around him to get to the centre of his being. He is one of the guards who has to deal with Jack the Ripper on the lose, whom is giving them a hard time in catching him. Archer has to deal with the duality of the excitement of something new on his plate to deal with and the need on a personal level to keep Elena from harms way. Elena – who by the way – stirs feelings inside him he thought had been long gone.

There are a few other characters coming to scene who play a keypart in this novel and Mr. Leeson is one of them. I find him amusing as well as entertaining. The twins Marcus and Selena and dr. Charles Harcourt stick to mind mostly. Some with just the blishfully normal life and others with some – how do I call it – interesting quirks which gives this book a great twist.

This story takes place in 1888 which brings this setting into a world of beyond the average historical regency and historicals I have read so far and to me that stirred up my need to read on. You can taste the way of living changing a bit more to what we are used to these days. The struggle of women wanting to make it on their own and the dangers that come along without the protection of a strong protocol and guardian by their side.

There is a particular scene between Queen Victoria and Archer that made me instantly aware of how far the paranormal abilities of the Shadow Guards can reach, and how they have to have the ability to constantly keep reaching between the moraly right and wrongs for the “humans”. It struck my emotions and left me amazed by Kim Lenox’ writing skills – in that one small scene between them she was able to hit my emotions full force!

The romance/love connection between Elena and Archer builts up gradually making it a lingering sub-plotline. I really liked the fact that Elena has the struggle of wanting to take some action on it, but the shyness as well to not do so promptly when she experiences the fluttering feeling of attraction. It stipulates the fact that in this timeperiod the world was already changing a bit to the likings of nowadays. Because the love between them is taking it’s time to built up, it was all the more important to read about the attraction they felt for both their point of view. The story changes from both sides on and off so it didn’t leave things to be desired in the romantic department for me whilst reading this novel.

As the story builts up in the first half, Kim Lenox takes her time in letting the reader know the characters and giving bits and pieces of the Shadow Guards world and how Archer fits in that. In the middle Jack the Ripper starts stirring up giving more and comes to scene more often. The ending is climactic and though it rounds up things concerning the love between Archer and Elena it leaves plotlines open in which the next book will continue. The duality of their love building up and the murders getting more brutal and viscious makes this novel the addicting blend you just cannot put down. It’s making you crave to get your hands on the next novel so it made me straight away go to the buy-button and ordered So still the night.

Kim Lenox is a firm believer of Happily Ever Afters and that shows in this story. In the love-connection between Archer and Elena she focusses on the feelings and emotions of it and eventhough there are ofcourse sensual scene’s they are really that! Because the focus is on the emotions it comes across as sensual instead of sexual and I loved that because it made this book a real Paranormal Romance!

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THANK YOU to Pearl & Ashleagh, and Realms on Our Bookshelves!